185
Andy Warhol
You're In
- Estimate
- $60,000 - 80,000
$56,250
Lot Details
spray paint on Coca-Cola bottle
8 x 2 3/8 x 2 3/8 in. (20.3 x 6 x 6 cm.)
Numbered "SC22.009" on a label affixed to the underside.
Specialist
Full-Cataloguing
Catalogue Essay
“ You can be watching TV and see Coca-Cola, and you can know that the President drinks Cokes, Liz Taylor drinks Cokes, and just think, you can drink Coke, too.” - ANDY WARHOL
Warhol’sfascination with the metalizing of everyday objects began in 1967 with a prizehe created for a contest sponsored by the Sunday Magazine of the New York-World
Journal Tribune. The prize was a silvered bomb.The contest winner recalled visiting the Warhol Factory and beingdisheartened that his prize was not one of the iconic commercial objects.Warhol famously stated: “It’s so beautiful I couldn’t ruin it by paintinganything on it once I painted it silver. I’ve sat and stared at it for weeks.
Isn’t it beautiful?” (G. Frei and N. Printz,TheAndy Warhol Catalogue Raisonné Vol. 2B: Paintings and Sculpture 1964-1969,Phaidon, 2002, p. 279).
Warhol’s next collection of silver spraypainted objects, done in the same year as the bomb, were his Coca-Cola bottles,which made their visual premiere on the poster for the Museum of Merchandisefor an exhibition produced by The Fine Arts Committee of the Philadelphia YMHAand arranged by Joan Kron and Audrey Sabol. The poster advertised Warhol’sCoca-Cola bottles as being filled with toilet water and mischievously entitled“You’re in.” The outwardly shiny and slick bottles were, however, actually
filled with “Silver Lining,” an inexpensive cologne. By suggesting that thisCoke bottle was filled with urine that had a cheap scent, Warhol seemed todefame the product that all Americas shared.Coca-Cola, however, was not amused and demanded that their productionand sale be halted. This work encapsulatesWarhol’s profound and unparalleled ability to both retain and destroy thecommercial identity of the everyday object.
Warhol’sfascination with the metalizing of everyday objects began in 1967 with a prizehe created for a contest sponsored by the Sunday Magazine of the New York-World
Journal Tribune. The prize was a silvered bomb.The contest winner recalled visiting the Warhol Factory and beingdisheartened that his prize was not one of the iconic commercial objects.Warhol famously stated: “It’s so beautiful I couldn’t ruin it by paintinganything on it once I painted it silver. I’ve sat and stared at it for weeks.
Isn’t it beautiful?” (G. Frei and N. Printz,TheAndy Warhol Catalogue Raisonné Vol. 2B: Paintings and Sculpture 1964-1969,Phaidon, 2002, p. 279).
Warhol’s next collection of silver spraypainted objects, done in the same year as the bomb, were his Coca-Cola bottles,which made their visual premiere on the poster for the Museum of Merchandisefor an exhibition produced by The Fine Arts Committee of the Philadelphia YMHAand arranged by Joan Kron and Audrey Sabol. The poster advertised Warhol’sCoca-Cola bottles as being filled with toilet water and mischievously entitled“You’re in.” The outwardly shiny and slick bottles were, however, actually
filled with “Silver Lining,” an inexpensive cologne. By suggesting that thisCoke bottle was filled with urine that had a cheap scent, Warhol seemed todefame the product that all Americas shared.Coca-Cola, however, was not amused and demanded that their productionand sale be halted. This work encapsulatesWarhol’s profound and unparalleled ability to both retain and destroy thecommercial identity of the everyday object.
Provenance
Exhibited
Literature
Andy Warhol
American | B. 1928 D. 1987Andy Warhol was the leading exponent of the Pop Art movement in the U.S. in the 1960s. Following an early career as a commercial illustrator, Warhol achieved fame with his revolutionary series of silkscreened prints and paintings of familiar objects, such as Campbell's soup tins, and celebrities, such as Marilyn Monroe. Obsessed with popular culture, celebrity and advertising, Warhol created his slick, seemingly mass-produced images of everyday subject matter from his famed Factory studio in New York City. His use of mechanical methods of reproduction, notably the commercial technique of silk screening, wholly revolutionized art-making.Working as an artist, but also director and producer, Warhol produced a number of avant-garde films in addition to managing the experimental rock band The Velvet Underground and founding Interview magazine. A central figure in the New York art scene until his untimely death in 1987, Warhol was notably also a mentor to such artists as Keith Haring and Jean-Michel Basquiat.
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